Bullet Proof Vehicles are Big Business in Mexico...and San Antonio

I was trying to get current news about the border situation, that is specific news.  Of course the current news is that killing is going on non-stop.  But the LACK of news from Mexico on United States outlets is really frustrating, almost as bad as the near news blackout on the Obama trip.  But I ran across an interesting sidelight to the Mexican civil war.

It seems that people are getting their vehicles armored in record numbers.  Politicians in Mexico (as in other nations) have done this for years, but now local business people, bankers, and even more mundane workers are getting their vehicles armor-plated.  Of course, the crime bosses have long had this advantage. But it has become of the fastest growing business segments in Mexico.  People simply wanting to survive their commutes to work or to drop off the children at school.  Carjackings and kidnappings are rampant and have turned Mexico into the most dangerous country in the world, as far as nations that are "at peace" are concerned.  Granted, Mexico is "at peace" in name only.  More people dead there since 2008 than all the American soldiers killed in both Gulf Wars and up to the present occupations of Iraq and Afghanistan.

The fact that "common people" are turning to ballistic armor for their cars is one of the most telling aspects of the state of the current government of Mexico.  I am not talking about exotic cars and Humvees;  people are getting their Camrys and Accords armored as well.  Many citizens have had bullets hit their vehicles when gunmen were not visible and there were no evidence of gunfights in progress.  These random bullets have proven deadly for many Mexican citizens as well as the occasional unfortunate tourist.  By the way, tourists, if you have not figured out by now that maybe this would be a better time to visit Hawaii or even the Vatican than Mexico, well, you might need to read my previous posts.  But you will be hard-pressed to find real time news from Mexico.  There appears to be some sort of a media-wide agreement to limit coverage of Mexico.  Of course it may be that coverage of the Mexican civil war would be detrimental to the "open-border" lobby, so that could be the reason for so little coverage.

My hat is off to those Mexican government officials and police officers who are still willing to serve in the face of such dire hazard.  One of the biggest problems honest officials face is the knowledge that anyone in their organizations could be a "mole" for the various cartels.  At the local levels, more and more cities are literally under the control of one or more cartels.  In the latter case, the constant fighting between these cartels limits the regular functioning of these cities. Mexico is still in turmoil.  The government of Mexico is apparently powerless to stop the fighting.  So, the best that most Mexicans can do at the moment is take their cars to the local armor shop.  But, take a good lunch supply with you...the wait for armor is up to twelve weeks.  Even in San Antonio, the wait for service is several days.